A friend and I decided our work staff room (servicing 100 people) would be a perfect place for a Tiny Free Library.

We started on 19/3/17 with 3 books and the first two weeks were a bit disappointing, in that nothing moved. Then, I swapped one book out, and another from home in. It was as if this one change had given people permission to use the library - we had a few donations and loans began in earnest.

Six weeks after we opened, we now have books moving in and out every day, and I find myself fascinated with watching the library, and talking about books with the people I work with.

I am loving the Tiny Free Library, and the only downside - I now have all these titles that friends have recommended and not much time to read them.

So, its finally time to catch up on the A-Z run of Brisbane. I have been running, just having been posting. So here's a summary of the B,C,D and E runs

B = Bribie Island - 22/1/17

As a child we lived near Bribie Island and my first trip to the beach was to Bribie's calm side with my kindy class. I was petrified. First bus trip. First beach trip. Spent the entire day clinging to the teacher.

As an adult I haven't spent a lot of time on Bribie, and as I'm discovering during this sightseeing run of Brisbane, there's one common theme - Why don't I ever come here normally? Made a promise to myself as I stood on the beach, soaking up the atmosphere - I'm definitely coming back.

C = Cleveland 5/2/17

So carrying on with the beach theme, my C run was at Cleveland. I parked at the point then explored the foreshore for the next hour and a bit. It was a glorious day, a bit hot, but everywhere I turned, it was beautiful.

This is 20 mins from my house. Again, why do I never come here normally? While pondering this very thought, I ran past the terminal that runs the water taxi to Stradbroke Island. Hmmmmh... Do I really have to wait to get to S? Turns out, no.

D = Dunwich, Stradbroke Island 12/3/17

Stradbroke Island is a 25 minute water taxi ride from Cleveland, and a million miles away. I had the best time. It was hot and humid and a bit later than I like to run (because of the ferry times) but I had a ball. Met a fabulously leathery skinned gent wearing very tiny shorts who lives on his boat off Straddie, who told me I was "very white" and asked if I was English. Nope, live over there, I tell him. Just not much into getting sunburnt.

Biggest regrets of this run:1. I couldn't stay all day, even though I wanted to2. I didn't have time to get a pie from the pie shop before I got back on the water taxi. Clearly the pies are good, judging by the aroma coming from the pie shop, and the queues. I guess I'm going to have to go back...​

E = Eagle Junction 26/3/17

So I was spoilt for choice by the letter E - Eagle Farm, Eagle Junction, Eagleby. Turns out early Brisbane had a lot of Eagles. I was conflicted - I wanted to run Eagle Farm but its industrial and not somewhere I was sure I would be safe. So instead I chose the old stomping grounds of my sister - Eagle Junction. I was too young to drive when she lived there, so I tried to find the flat by starting at the train station, and I found it. Still can't believe it.

This was an architecture run - spent a lot of time gazing at old houses made new again, old houses waiting for love, and discovering that streets I had driven down many times as an adult were so close to this area and I never realised before. Finished up with a loop into Clayfield to discover the old shops I remember are mostly gone, the hall our school used for its speech night is now a real estate office and potentially it isn't the area for me if the coffee shops were closed but the organic wheat grass smoothie shop was the only thing open.

When I was three, my parents had a snack bar in the little grey shop in the photos, which was right on a rail crossing. I spent hours counting carriages and watching for trains. I hadn't been through this way for a good twenty years. I remembered the shops and the rail line quite clearly, I forgot the hills (until I started running them), and three year old me didn't know it was right near the racecourse.

Mum did burgers and milkshakes and lollies, in the era before fries/chips and McDonalds. Their was a pool table and my sister was quite the wizard at pool, having practiced from a young age. To the left of the shop is a hedge - that used to be a chain link fence and during a fast paced game of tiggy I slipped on the wet grass and tore open my face. What most people think is a frown line is actually a scar. Looking at the building today, I can't believe a family of four lived in the back of that shop for a really long time. It does explain why when we moved to a semi-rural block with a standard house I couldn't believe how huge it was.

Kitchener Road, Ascot. (Ascot Run). My parents had a snack bar on Kitchener Road when I was 3. (Ascot Run)

So, here it is, one of my new year's resolutions - the A-Z run of Brisbane. The goal:To run for an hour in at least 26 different locations (one for each letter of the alphabet) across Brisbane and surrounds over the course of 2107, with destinations chosen by the first letter of their suburb name. The aim:To explore my city, to rediscover my history/heritage (My Brisbane), to experience different areas and to get out of the gym, where I do most of my running at 5am in the morning.The reward:I feel excited about this challenge, and that is the reward. Anything that keeps me awake at night, trying to remember suburb names to fit into my draft plan of where I'm going to run must be the right kind of challenge for me.Wish me luck - I'll check each run in here and if you follow me on Twitter I'm using the hashtag #Atozrunbrisbane 2017. No doubt I'll be posting photos as I journey around.

The Pinkenba Rail Line at Hendra. Photo is 8km from the CBD but not a building in site. (Ascot Run).

As I do every year, once the hustle and bustle of Christmas is over and done with, my thoughts turn to New Year's Resolutions.

Here's what I'm thinking about as options for 2017:

1, Alphabet Run/walk:Starting with A and progressing all the way through the alphabet, take some time to explore your city on foot by walking or running 5km in a suburb starting with this week's letter of the alphabet. You get two weeks for each letter. See, there's a reason we have a suburb called Zillmere, Yeronga, Gordon Park and Eagle Junction. I am however stuck on "Q" and "U". I don't think Quilpie or Urandangie (country towns) will cut the mustard. Trips planned in Sydney and Melbourne next year, so maybe that might help me out for the tricky ones.

2. Run Down UnderA virtual run around Australia - all 14080km of it. This morning I logged 6km. If I keep up this pace every single day, I will complete my journey in 2346 days, or 6.4years. Alternatively, I could do 38.6km every day and finish in 2017. Actually, 14080 is more than my car does in a year. so I doubt my legs could make it (Maybe I need to rethink.) Details here, if anyone else is interested :www.rundownunder.com.au

​3. 17 in 201717 what, I hear you ask? Well, this is the question. 17 books, 17 movies, 17 writing marathons, 17 actual marathons - the list is infinite and that's what's so good about this challenge. You can individualise it to what you like to do. 17 pieces of cheesecake? No worries - so long as its what you've put on your list at the start. Alternatively, put 17 fun things into a jar and pick one out, then do it, with the aim of emptying the jar by the end of the year.

Those are my top 3 at the moment. What about you? What are you planning for your resolutions?

One of the highlights of the year for me is receiving "the Christmas letter" from my distant friends and family, so I can keep up with what's happened in their lives. But, if you're like me with no kids or grandkids to share, the Christmas letter tends to be pretty much the same every year.

So in 2016, I decided to set myself a challenge - tell the story of my year in Haiku. For those that don't remember, Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry with 3 lines and a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. It generally involves nature, and a sharp contrast/unexpected statement in the last line.

Here's some of the Haiku that made it into the letter, which was posted this week. Fingers crossed the family don't think I've lost my marbles.

About the Christmas season in general:Hot sticky weatherWestfield carparks overfilledFrustrations explode

November - what's not to love - jacarandas in full bloom, warm spring weather and best of all - it's national novel writing month or NaNoWriMo.

This year I'm NaNoNOTWriMo-ing courtesy of a temporary contract extension in the day job and a tricky timeline rewrite in the centre of my manuscript. The suggestion from my crit group to improve a single chapter means rewrites both back and forward from that spot and sadly, the continuity of "who knows what and when" is doing my head in. Cue a collection of post-it notes spread across one side of my desk to set it in stone. Now I just have to ensure I've incorporated it all.

Good luck to those wielding their pens towards the 50K goal - I wish you speedy words, plenty of writing time and no unforeseen disasters.

I've had a bit of a digital detox these last few weeks, courtesy of Mr Greene. Turns out our new and improved phone/internet deal is great if you stay home on your wi-fi. If you go away and are not hooked into a network, your data disappears really quickly. Even more so when auto-updates are turned on and they all download the first day of your beach holiday using 98% of the month's limit.

Turns out there are heaps of things to do when you're on a holiday and not permanently attached to your phone or your iPad, like reading, writing, walking, exploring, beaching, karting, napping. Even photography got a look in. Here's one of my favourite shots. We'd gone "up to the Point" to drool over a million dollar real estate listing and came back via the Osprey nest where we love to see the parents tending their young. Our dream would be to own one of the homes on the Esplanade and have this view forever.... I wish...

This is one of my favourite winter photos - it was 4 degrees with an apparent temp of -1, and I was wearing Queensland winter running gear (shorts and a T-shirt) in South Australia where the wind blows straight off Antarctica (or so it seemed).

Everyone was asking "Aren't you cold?"

Yes, I was. It's amazing how fast you can run with the threat of hypothermia as your incentive.

Sorry I haven't been around much these last few weeks. There's a long story as to why but you all know I love to write short, so here goes:1. New day job2. On top of existing day job3. New computer (gulp)4. Travel for new day job5. New gym routine (Ok its not a NEW gym routine, its ROUTINE use of the gym)6. RWA Conference - spectacular as always but squeezed in between all of the above - so not as much time at conference as previous years.

Things are starting to settle down a bit now in this "new normal" and I'm getting better at prioritising my time (aka I'm getting up earlier). Should see me round here more often as a result.

We've had some spectacular skies as winter takes us in its grip and gives us a reason to rug up. Not that its been that cold. We moved from our traditional Queenslander, designed to catch the breeze in summer to a lowest brick, and I'm pretty sure I'll never be bone-crunchingly cold again. This new house is just so warm.

Here's some gorgeous sunset clouds, with just a promise of a cold night, taken a few days ago.